Steelers News: Asante Samuel Jr.’s FIRST DAY As A Steeler + Could Philly SWOOP IN To Poach Him?

Steelers News: Asante Samuel Jr.’s FIRST DAY As A Steeler + Could Philly SWOOP IN To Poach Him?

[Music] New Steelers quarterback Asante Samuel Jr. spent his first day in Pittsburgh today, participated in practice, and we have his new number as well. Welcome in to Steelers Talk by Chat Sports. I’m your host, Jack Sperry. Before we get into the latest Asante Samuel Jr. news and rumors, make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven’t already. If you are excited to watch ASJ in a Pittsburgh Steeler uniform this year like I am, it also helps out the channel. Guys, if you the real ones know clicking that thumbs up icon is the fastest and easiest way to help out our channel. It boosts the YouTube algorithm. It gets more eyes on this video, which of course means more subscribers, which means more likes, which mean and it just keeps on going. So, I appreciate all of your guys’ support. And with that, let’s get into the news of the day. Starting with Asante Samuel Jr.’s ‘s new number that he’ll be wearing here in Pittsburgh, which is going to be his dad’s old number that he wore, the number 22. Now, Sebastian Castro, who’s recently poached off of uh the Buccaneers practice squad, uh you know, practiced yesterday in the number 22. Now, uh he will be wearing number 49 uh because Asante will be wearing that double deuce moving forward. He also practiced today in the south side of Pittsburgh and he was practicing with the outside cornerbacks today at Steelers practice. So, it certainly seems like the plan here in Pittsburgh is to play him on the outside alongside Joey Porter Jr. on the other side of the defense, which would indicate that at least for now, Brandon Eckles will be the starting uh slot corner for this defense moving forward. Of course, you still have Darius Slay, who’s currently injured with a concussion. Cory Trice Jr. is trying to get off of IR uh with both hamstring and knee injuries. James Pierre is obviously a fantastic depth option. Whenever Asante Samuel Jr. is ready to go, but I assume whenever Asante gets ramped up and the team feels like he’s ready to play, he’s going to play pretty darn uh right away. Now, uh I think a big question surrounding Asante Samuel Jr. uh especially after that very serious spinal surgery and neck surgery that he had last off season or last season I should say is will he be the same after surgery because you know this is a very you know crucial part of his body you know it’s it’s the thing that connects his entire nervous system and to get that repaired you know that’s something that you know is kind of concerning and it does bring up certain concerns about somebody you know coming back to play football off of that kind of procedure but Samuel said today and he told reporter after practice, quote, “I feel great. This is the healthiest I’ve ever been.” He claimed that the neck issue that he got surgery for um last year, he was actually he’s actually been dealing with his entire NFL career, and now he feels as good as he ever has throughout his NFL career, which would be good news um uh to start his Steelers tenure here. This is what exactly what he had to say earlier today. He says, “I was playing with the neck issue for my entire NFL career, so it was nothing new. I had to get it fixed. I feel great. this is the healthiest I’ve ever been. Everything happens for a reason. I’m glad I ended up here.” And asked why he wanted to come to Pittsburgh specifically, his answer was a good one. He wants to win. So, you know, I think that, you know, there shouldn’t be a heavy push to play ASJ this week versus the Cincinnati Bengals. All right. Um, I know that people are going to be antsy to see Double Deuce out there and, you know, get his first, you know, live game action for the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially because, uh, the coverage here in Pittsburgh, the pass coverage has not been up to up to snuff, uh, throughout the first half of the 2025 season here. Uh, but I think it it would be a really tough ass to ask somebody that hasn’t played an NFL game in 14 months. He’s coming off of spinal surgery and neck surgery and uh he hasn’t even been with the team for more than a week at that point to learn the playbook, get himself ramped up from a physical standpoint, get himself ready to go up against, you know, maybe the best wide receiver duo in the National Football League and Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. I just think that that is a really tough ass uh to kind of go the Kyle Duggar kind of uh situation here where you’re ramping somebody up to play in less than a week and then to ask him to go out there and play at a high level. Um, I just think that, you know, that’s a big ask for Asante Samuel Jr. I think that if you want to, uh, you know, do this the right way, you know, I would elevate him from practice squad, but, you know, I’d give him, you know, the active roster spot, but I’d probably make him inactive and I wouldn’t play him. Okay. The reason why I would put him on the active roster is so that, you know, there’s no risk of him going somewhere else. If there if there’s a team that wants to add him to the practice squad, he can technically uh agree to go to that team um uh if he wants to. But, you know, if he’s on the active roster, then obviously that’s not something that’s possible. So, that’s why I would add him to the active roster and I would elevate him from the practice squad by the end of the week. But, I would not play him. And a big reason why I feel really comfortable about not playing him is that I am very comfortable playing backup corner James Pierre, who has been phenomenal these last two weeks. He has six PBUs just over the last two games. And he’s really only played like a game and a half of reps the last two games, guys. And in those kind of game and a half of of reps, he has six PBUs. I think the leader in the entire National Football League in PBUS right now is eight. So the fact that he already has six is really really impressive. He’s been around the football. He’s been using his long arms to bat away passes and he’s been really good in pass coverage, man. So, you know, and honestly, when you look at the body types of James Pierre, who’s a little bit bigger, he’s got longer arms, all that stuff. I think he’s a better fit to maybe go up against a guy like T. Higgins versus a guy like Asante Samuel Jr. who’s 510 180 pounds, right? He’s not really built as a physical kind of outside corner, whereas James Pierre is. He is a scrapper out there. And I think that if you’re going to be asking Joey Porter Jr. to go on Jamar Chase and play press against him, which I think is absolutely the plan that the Steelers should have this weekend, that means you would need a bigger kind of scrappier corner to go up against T. Higgins. I think Pierre is up for that role. So, listen, man. I’m excited to see ASJ play with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but how about we give him a week to ramp up and we and we uh you know put him out there for the first time when we play the Chicago Bears once we get to week 12 next week. So, what say you guys? Let me know down there in the comments section. Should Asante Samuel Jr. start at CB2 this week versus the Cincinnati Bengals? Give me a yes or a no down there in the comment section for today’s pin question. Just a second here. I’m going to let you guys know about a great opportunity to get an awesome piece of Steelers apparel uh today. But before I while I do that, just give me a yes or no down there in the comments section. If you guys want the officially licensed Pittsburgh Steelers Salute to Service Hoodie, you guys can get it right now at chatsports.com/pitsolute25. Every time you make a purchase, when you click our link, we get part of the proceeds. So, if you guys like the design of this year’s salute to service gear and especially the sweatshirt, uh you can help out the channel today by getting one of these bad boys for either yourself or somebody that you love for Christmas. And I really love, and I say this every time that I talk about this product, but I really like and appreciate the army green color that they went with this year instead of the heavy camo that they’ve done in years past. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with camo. It’s just you can’t wear it to a plethora of different situations. Whereas, I think Army Green is a lot more versatile. And I think that this is something that you can wear in a lot of different situations in a lot of different um kind of contexts. And I of course I love the America branding there with the US flag on the right sleeve. And then you’ve got the Steelers logo there on the chest and you know all you know packaged together in that really minimalistic look that I really appreciate. So if you’re with me on that, you guys want this in your closet, go to chatports.com/pitsolute25. That link is down in the comments and description of today’s show. Get this uh great Steelers sweatshirt in your collection today. All right, so now another question that has popped up on Steelers Twitter is could the Philadelphia Eagles poach Sante Samuel Jr. from Pittsburgh’s practice squad? Because remember, the Steelers have not added ASJ to their active roster. At least not yet. So some especially Philly fans are out there saying, “Let’s poach him off of the Steelers practice squad because yesterday the Eagles lost Jier Alexander who they just traded a sixth round pick for uh for the season. and he’s stepping away from football uh to kind of figure out his mental health, all that different stuff. And you know, he’s going to make a determination as to whether or not he will return to the National Football League next year. But of course, that means the Eagles are down a cornerback. And of course, Asante Samuel Senior played his uh you know, professional ball, a lot of it in Philadelphia. So theoretically, the the Eagles can poach Asante Samuel Jr. off of the Steelers practice squad as long as he’s on the practice squad. But he’s going to have to agree to go there. and after this extensive search where he’s taken a bunch of visits and you know all this different stuff, he landed on the Pittsburgh Steelers as the team that he wants to play for. Okay, so the fact that he would all of a sudden change his mind and say, “Whoop, never mind. I’d rather play for the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m going to go crossstate and go play for Philly now.” I think that that’s pretty unlikely at this point. Uh plus, I think that Pittsburgh’s probably going to put him on the active roster here pretty soon. If not this week, then surely next week. I’m sure um the Pittsburgh Steelers are communicating uh with him and have communicated with him what they kind of expect his ramp up schedule to look like. Um and I’m guessing you know he’s perfectly fine with whatever that you know ramp up strategy is and he’s excited to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So even if the Philadelphia Eagles wanted to poach him, I just don’t think ASJ is going to go for it at this point. But I think that his dad Asante Samuels senior probably would. Uh he he he po he posted two eyeball emojis to the news that Jier Alexander is stepping away from the Eagles yesterday. And a lot of people took that to mean, oh, okay, there’s an open spot at quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. All right, son. Maybe go there instead. And like I said, man, Senior did play for the for the Eagles back in the day. He wore number 22 for them. And you know, I I’m sure that, you know, he would love for to see his son wear his old colors there in Philadelphia, right? But he’s not he’s not junior, right? he’s not the one driving the bus. He’s not the one making the decisions and Junior and his representation decided that Pittsburgh was the place that he wanted to be. Uh, another reason why I think that Senior would probably want Junior to go to Philly uh instead of go to Pittsburgh here is because it doesn’t seem like he’s too keen on Aaron Rodgers being the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is what Asante had to say on his podcast earlier this week after the Steelers lost to the Chargers on Sunday Night Football in week 10. I think Aaron Rogers is too old. He doesn’t want to get tackled or hit like he used to back in the day. I thought Aaron Rogers is killing or I think Aaron Rogers is killing Pittsburgh’s chances this season. So obviously he doesn’t feel uh too great about the Pittsburgh Steelers chances of winning this year. Um and I think that sucks for him because obviously I think his son probably disagrees and he definitely disagrees. I mean, he had playoff teams or current uh NFL playoff teams, you know, interested in him like Green Bay and San Francisco and Chicago and all these teams that are currently in the NFL playoff picture. They were all interested in him and guess what? He decided to come to the Pittsburgh Steelers instead. So, I really don’t think uh Junior’s going anywhere. He’s where he wants to be. And uh if anything, I think if there’s a current Steelers quarterback that will play a game for the Philadelphia Eagles this year, I would bet it would be Darius Slay. All right. I think that Slay has a better chance of playing for the Eagles this year than Asante Samuel Jr. does. And you know, you can just think about it, okay? Last year, Philadelphia won a championship with Darius Slay as their number two outside corner in that kind of quarters heavy system that Vic Fangio runs there in Philly. And they now need help at quarterback. Adori Jackson’s been terrible all season long. And now they just lost Jier Alexander. So, you know, I certainly think that they’d be open to bringing back Slay. Um, and now that Slay’s essentially been benched by the Pittsburgh Steelers, I mean, you don’t bring in Asante Samuel Jr. and he doesn’t agree to come play for you unless he gets some sort of assurance that he’s going to be a starter for this team. Um, and you know, if Slay is going to be kind of delegated to a backup, I kind of doubt that Slay wants to finish out his career. And he’s already said this is going to be the final year of his NFL playing career, I doubt he wants to finish his career on the bench and not getting any reps and not getting any time. Um, I in fact, I think he’d probably just rather retire than just sit on the Steelers’ bench at this point. But he might be saying, and I had some people say this to me on Twitter yesterday, but Jack, he has a fully guaranteed $10 million contract. Why would the Steelers pay him to play for somebody else? Well, according to Spo, not Spo, it’s Spo, uh, Ponzi. Um, he it’s not a fully guaranteed contract, guys. He’s got 10 million. And if you put it up on Google right now, Google AI will tell you it’s fully guaranteed 10 million. But according to Spotra and Over the Cap, uh those two sites that kind of track contracts and what guaranteed money goes where, he only has about 8.7 of that fully guaranteed. And if Pittsburgh were to cut him, they would actually save cap space this year, a little bit over 1.2 million if they end up cutting bait with sleigh. So, you know, the idea that it’s a fully guaranteed contract, uh it’s just not it’s just not based in fact. Uh but secondly, you know, if Slay goes to them and requests to be cut, which is something that is very realistic, uh especially if he feels like he’s got an opportunity to sign with the Eagles and play for them, um if the Steelers say no, he can just say fine, I I’m going to retire. Like if Slay doesn’t want to play another down for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he does not have to. So, you know, the Steel and in that situation, the Steelers might as well just throw him a bone. And it’s not like you need a bunch of cap space for the rest of the season. It’s not like you’re going to be signing a bunch of players at the end of this year. Um, you know, you save a little bit of cap space. That cap space rolls over to the 2026 off seasonason as well. So, keep that in mind. So, if he doesn’t want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler anymore, man, I don’t want any uh hostages here, hostages here. I want volunteers. And if he’s going to become a hostage, as far as I’m concerned, the Steelers can let him go. So, make that call for me down there in the comments section. If Darius Slay comes to you and he says as the GM of the Pittsburgh Steelers, I want out. I’m never playing another down for the Pittsburgh Steelers. What are you doing? Are you keeping him and you’re kind of forcing him to to be a backup here or are you releasing him and throwing him a bone? Let me know what you guys think down there in the comment section. For me, I’m just releasing him. I’m taking the extra cap space I can roll over in the 2026. I don’t know about you guys, but if he doesn’t want to play here, man, I’m not going to force him. Uh I’ll send him on his way if he doesn’t want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler anymore. Now, before I go here, some final items. We did get some notable injury updates for uh the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, we’ll start with Will Howard, who is officially on the active roster now. He has been added to the uh active roster after he’s been on IR all season with a finger injury. Of course, he broke his finger during training camp. Um and he’s been on IR ever since. And now he is officially on the active roster. He is the QB3 behind Aaron Rogers and Mason Rudolph. So, that’s great to see. Uh but then you know going to some of the other injury updates here. Some new additions to the injury report today. Brick Jones with a groin injury and Alex Heismith with a pectoral injury. Both of whom did not practice today. So we’re definitely going to be keeping an eye on both of those guys uh as the season and as the week goes on here as we prepare uh for the Bengals. And Darius Slay of course is dealing with a concussion at the moment. Uh Cole Hulkcom did not practice today with an illness. Like that is a what I don’t know what that illness is, man, but it must been absolutely nasty if he’s still not practicing. And then Cory Trice Jr. still trying to get himself off of IR. Uh he’s currently dealing with both hamstring and knee injuries and his 21-day practice window is uh it’s certainly uh dwindling here. Um his season might be done unfortunately. But then we get to Isaac Seamalo uh who missed last week’s game with a pec injury. He was limited in practice today. That’s really good. Uh, you know, it’s really good momentum towards him playing on Sunday. Mike Tomlin did say on Tomlin Tuesday yesterday that he feels optimistic about Seal’s chances of playing. So, we’ll keep you updated on his status, but certainly seems uh good at this point in the week. And then Jabril Peppers was a full participant in practice today. He’s had this set out the last couple games with a quad injury. And, you know, it’s it’s definitely interesting because I think Jabril Peppers is a pretty decent player and I think Jaylen Ramsey is an excellent nickel corner. So, I would be interested to see if Jabril Peppers is back to 100% if they would play him at safety alongside his former running mate at safety there in New England, Kyle Duggar, and then move Jaylen Ramsay back to the slot because I think Jaylen is a really, really good slot corner. You can use him on slot. Blitz is more all that different stuff. You know, you can’t use him as much towards the line of scrimmage when he’s playing free safety. So, I feel like a nickel corner is the more versatile, more impactful role for Ramsay. So, if Peppers is healthy, I would probably think about starting Peppers at free safety, having Kyle Duggar play strong, and then having Ramsey at nickel, especially because Brandon Eckles really struggled in coverage last week. Um, you know, he had multiple lapses in man-to-man coverage against Lad Mani, Keenan Allen, and others. Um, and honestly, he’s had some man-to-man struggles from the slot the last two weeks, even going back to the Colts game. So, personally, I would probably prefer Jabril Peppers uh play at free safety and then Jaylen Ramsey moved back down into the slot. But let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section because you got to pick one of these guys. One of these guys gets playing time. Jabril Peppers at free safety or Brandon Eckles in the slot. Which one are you giving uh the reps to? Who are you starting? Give me a JP for Jabril Peppers. Type BE for Brandon Eckles. For me, I think I’d be starting Peppers, but let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. And that’ll be it for today’s edition of Steelers News and Rumors. Tomorrow, Ponzi and I will be back live for Steelers Talk Live. Of course, we’ll have another video come out around lunchtime tomorrow as well. So, we got a bunch of Steelers content coming your way on Thursday. So, click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Until tomorrow, guys. Here we go. Steelers. [Music]

Steelers news and rumors: The Pittsburgh Steelers shocked the NFL yesterday by signing CB Asante Samuel Jr. out of free agency to the practice squad. However, could the Steelers get poached from the Philadelphia Eagles with the recent Eagles news that CB Jaire Alexander is stepping away from the NFL. Jack Sperry breaks down all of the latest Asante Samuel Jr. Steelers rumors on today’s episode of Steelers Talk by Chat Sports.

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The Eagles are in desperate need of CB help with the recent news that CB Jaire Alexander is stepping away from the NFL and some are suggesting that Asante Samuel Jr. could be lured off the Steelers practice squad to join his dad’s former team. Steelers report host Jack Sperry believes the wrong CB is being linked to them and suggest Darius Slay Jr. could have one last ride with the Eagles before he retires.

Asante Samuel Jr. (On His Neck Surgery):
“I was playing with (the neck issue) for my entire NFL career, so it was nothing new; I had to get it fixed…I feel great. This is the healthiest I’ve ever been…Everything happens for a reason. I’m glad I ended up here.”

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Asante Samuel Sr. (On Aaron Rodgers):
“I think Aaron Rodgers is too old. He doesn’t want to get tackled or hit like he used to back in the day. I think Aaron Rodgers is killing (Pittsburgh’s) chances (this season).”

Here’s some more Steelers YouTube segments for you to check out if you’re looking for more insight on the Black & Gold:
– Steelers 2026 QB Targets: Veteran QB Options PIT May Consider REPLACING Aaron Rodgers With Next Year – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm0V9G7NzX8
– 🚨BREAKING🚨: Steelers SIGN Free Agent CB Asante Samuel Jr. To The Practice Squad | Instant Reaction – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlGKBLTyrwE
– Steelers vs. Bengals Week 11 Preview: Keys To Victory & Score Prediction | Here We Go Again? – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RlLAIbwsk

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Let your voice be heard by answering today’s questions on the Pittsburgh Steelers:
– Should Asante Samuel Jr. start at CB2 this week? Yes or No?
– What should PIT do with Slay? Type ‘K’ for Keep or ‘R’ for Release
– Who should play more? Type ‘JP’ for Jabrill Peppers or ‘BE’ for Brandin Echols

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